It is known that, in top-loaded washing machines, the drum is provided with two doors equipped with spring-loaded hinges. When the doors, in the closed position, are released, for instance, by actuation of a push-button, springs push the door into the open position, causing the doors to rotate in a radial direction. The opposite movement is performed by exerting manual thrust on the doors so as to bring them back into the closed position, with application of pressure against the action of the springs, which are thus elastically re-loaded.
Since the motion of opening of the doors would prove somewhat too sharp, with consequent danger for the user, it is necessary to provide the doors with decelerating devices in order to dampen the motion of opening.
More in general, in many applications, not only in the field of household appliances but also in the automobile field (for example, the door of the glove-box inside the passenger compartment), it is necessary to dampen the motion of two relatively rotating members.
In general, known decelerating devices comprise a rotor (for instance, a turbine-shaped rotor), which turns immersed in a viscous fluid contained in a casing. The rotor is secured to one of the rotating members, and the casing is secured to the other rotating member. Albeit effective, this type of decelerating device is, however, characterized by large overall dimensions, in particular in the radial direction, and the larger the overall dimensions, the greater the decelerating action required. Consequently, such a device is far from suited to being integrated in a hinge, in particular in a hinge of small dimensions as in the case of the drum of a top-loaded washing machine.
Furthermore, other known types of decelerating device with small radial dimensions simply envisage a rotating pin immersed in the viscous fluid and are consequently not able to generate a high decelerating torque.